1) Field
Provided is a surface acoustic wave sensor device including a target biomolecule isolation component, and a method of detecting a target biomolecule.
2) Description of the Related Art
A surface acoustic wave (“SAW”) is a mechanical wave (in contrast to an electrical wave) that is generated from the movement of particles due to external thermal, mechanical, and/or electrical forces. In a SAW, a large portion of vibrational energy is concentrated on the surface of a medium. A SAW sensor is a device sensing the presence or properties of a target material using a SAW.
The SAW sensor is disposed on a substrate formed of a piezoelectric material and includes a receptor specifically binding to a desired target material on the surface. Thus, when a solution containing the target material flows to the SAW sensor, a wavelength is changed due to a physical, chemical and/or electrical reaction between the target material and the receptor. Such a change leads to a signal change, which is used to determine and/or monitor the content of the target material.
A biosensor detects bioproducts such as biomolecules including proteins, deoxyribonucleic acid (“DNA”), bacteria, animal cells, tissues, etc., and toxins produced thereby. As the biomolecules specifically bind to a surface of the sensor, a surface mass of the sensor is changed, leading to a signal change in the sensor. Here, the sensor is very sensitive to pressure of a fluid, and viscosity and density of a medium, as well as the change in surface mass.
A resonance and oscillation device to generate a wave of the SAW device may use an oscillation method of applying an output signal from the SAW device to an input signal of the SAW device to check a wave change of the SAW device, or a method of generating a specific frequency outside the SAW device, applying the frequency to an input inter-digital transducer (“IDT”) electrode of the SAW device, and plotting the output signal according to each frequency.